Garment construction



Dec. 27, 1955 R. L. BEARD GARMENT CONSTRUCTION Filed July 14, 1953 IN VENTOR ATTORNEYS United States Patent 2,728,980 GARMENT CONSTRUCTION Ralph L. Beard, Winston-Salem, N. C., assignor to P. H. Hanes Knitting Company, Winston-Salem, N. (3., a corporation of North Carolina Application July 14, 1953, Serial No. 367,894

9 Claims. (Cl. 2-113) This invention relates to a garment construction, and more particularly to a neck structure for a garment of the slip over type having the body thereof formed of a material possessing a substantial degree of elasticity, particularly those garments commonly known as T-shirts.

It will become apparent that the present invention, while particularly intended for use with garments of the type referred to above, is not necessarily limited to such use. In the manufacture of T-shirts, it is the common practice to form the body of the shirt of a section of knitted tubular material. Such material is relatively elastic, particularly transversely of the garment. A neck opening is cut in the material and this opening is finished by the application to the body of the garment of what is commonly called a colret which ordinarily is made of a l x 1 material passed through a folding machine before being applied to the garment, the colret thus being doubled back upon itself to provide two layers, one of which lies outwardly of the garment and the other inwardly thereof. The free edge of the outer layer is turned under in being stitched to the garment to eliminate the raw edge outwardly of the garment, and while the lower edge of the inner fold of the material is left with a raw edge. This edge is substantially covered by crows-foot stitching through which the colret is attached to the garment, such stitching covering the lower extremity of the inner fold of the material to tend to hide the raw edge of the material and to prevent the fraying thereof.

Such garments have been manufactured in substantial quantities for a number of years and have been fairly satisfactory in use. They possess one disadvantage in that the neck line of the garment, viewed from the outside thereof, does not provide a particularly attractive finish. Perhaps more important is the fact that neck structures of this type are not capable of satisfactory recovery of the neck size and shape after substantial stretching, particularly if the garment is stretched when wet.

An important object of the present invention is to provide an improved neck construction of the general type referred to wherein the application in a novel manner of another strip of material around the neck provides the garment with a neater and more tailored appearance, thus rendering the garment more saleable.

A further object is to provide such a neck construction for a garment of the type referred to wherein the neck seam is far more durable and more resistant to wear and laundering, thus increasing the life of the shirt.

A further object is to provide such a garment wherein the shape of the neck in wearing and laundering is retained, the structure being such as to provide for an efficient degree of recovery from stretching, even if the neck opening is stretched substantially to its limit when wet.

A further object is to provide such a construction wherein a variety of different materials may be used for the various parts. Other objects and advantages of the invention, will become apparent during the course of the following description.

In the drawing I have shown two embodiments of the invention. In this showing:

Figure 1 is a front view of a garment embodying the present invention;

Figure 2 is an enlarged fragmentary face view of the neck portion of the garment, parts being shown in section;

Figure 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view on line 33 of Figure 2, the structure being shown in perspective and looking from the front side of the garment;

Figure 4 is a similar view on line 4-4 of Figure 2 looking from the inside of the garment.

Figure 5 is a fragmentary sectional perspective view of a portion of the strip used in attaching the colret to the garment, the end of the strip closer to the observer being shown in its folded position as it will be assembled on the garment, and

Fi ure 6 is a sectional perspective view similar to Figure 3 showing a modified form of the invention.

Referring to Figures 1 to 4 inclusive, the numeral 16 designates the body of the garment which may be made of any suitable or conventional type of material, for example, fiat knitted material, Jersey, etc. This material usually is knitted in tubular form and cut ofi to lengths to form individual bodies of garments of the present character. The body 16 is provided with a finished lower extremity 11, and sleeves 12 are suitably attached to opposite sides of the upper end of the garment in a conventional manner.

Referring to Figures 3 and 4, it will be noted that the body of the garment is cut away in the usual manner at its upper central extremity as at 13 to form a neck opening to which is attached a colret indicated as a whole by the numeral 14. This colret may be made of any suitable material, and preferably is formed of a stretchable or elastic knitted material folded intermediate its edges as at 15 to form outside and inside folds or layers of materials 16 and 17. In conventional constructions, the lower extremity of the inner fold 17 is left raw, while the lower extremity of the outer fold 16 is turned inwardly, whereupon stitching is applied through the inner and outer folds and through the neck portion of the body it] of the garment, thus providing a finished garment. Such a construction lacks the highly desirable finished tailored construction and does not possess a sufiicient degree of recovery from stretching.

In the present invention, a finishing and attaching strip indicated as a whole by the numeral 20 is employed for providing the advantages referred to above. This finishing strip may be formed of any suitable material, for example flat knit material where a firmer neck is desired, or 1X1 knit material may be used for a greater degree of resiliency. The strip 20 is passed through a suitable folding machine to provide an inner fold 21 which is adapted to lie flat against the outer face of the body of material 10, as shown in Figures 3 and 4. At the bottom of the inner fold 21, the material of the strip is folded as at 22 to provide an upwardly extending fold 23 between which is a space 24' which receives and completely conceals the lower extremity of the outer fold 16 of the colret, as more clearly shown in Figures 3 and 4-.

At the upper edge of the fold 23, the strip material is again doubled back upon itself as at 24 (Figure 5) to form an outer facing strip 25, and at the bottom of such strip the material is again folded as at 26 to provide an upwardly extending fold 27 lying between the fold 23 and facing strip 25 to be completely concealed when the garment is assembled.

The strip 20 and colret 14 will be supplied to the neck portion of the garment from separate adjacent folding o 3 machinesand will be as embled in the layered formation shown in Figure 4. Lines of stitching 29 are then applied to the garment, providing crows-foot stitching 30 internally of the garment to prevent fraying of the raw edge of'the lower extremity of the fold 17 and to conceal such edge. This type of stitching possesses a high degree of flexibility longitudinally of therows of stitching.

A modified form of the invention is shown in Figure 6 wherein the same reference numerals are applied to the body of the garment, the colret 14 and the lines of stitching described above. In the modified form of the invention, however, a modified type of finishing and securing strip is employed, and such strip is indicated as a whole by the numeral 32. The strip 32 is folded. as at 33 and 34 to form a down turned extremity 35, a finishing strip 36, and an inner fold 37 lying against the body 1-9 of the garment. This strip thereby provides three layers of material, two of which lie outwardly of the fold 6 and one of which lies: between such fold and the body of the garment, the lower extremity of the fold 16 of the colret lying between the strips 35 and 37 to be wholly concealed thereby; The same stitching 29 is used in this form of the garment and need not be further referred to.

Operation The operation of the construction will be more or less apparent from the foregoing description. The body 10 of the garment is preferably made of knitted tubular material, although obviously any other type of material may be used. Knitted material particularly has been referred to because of the high degree of practicability in the application of the present invention to the very popular garment commonly referred to. as, a T-shirt. The colret 14 and strip also may be made of any suitable material, for example 1x1 knitted material, fiat knit or jersey, and the threads employed in the making of the material may be of any desired type, for example, wool, cotton, nylon, etc.

It has been found highly practicable after the. body of the garment has been formed and the neck opening 13 has been suitably cut, to feed the colret 14 and strip 20 from adjacent folding machines, the lower extremity of the outer fold 16 of the colret being fed into the space. 24 and these elements, brought together in the manner referred to being then supplied, to the neck line of. the body of the garmentin the relationship shown in Figures 3 and 4. As thematerial is thus assembled,e,ach element relative to the other, the stitching 29 is applied.

It will be noted that when the strip of material 20 is employed, there will be. folds providing four layers of ma terial, namely, the layers 21, 23, 2,5 and 27, the latter; being a raw edge of the material which will be turned upwardly within the layer or finishing strip 25. to be completely concealed. Moreover, the finishing strip 25 will terminate at its. upper and, lower extremities in the smooth folds 24 and 26 with the result that when the garment is assembled, the finishing strip 25' will provide the garment with a much neater finished and tailored appearance than is true with conventional T-shirts and similar garments. It also has been found that with this type of assembly, as distinguished from the conventional type referred to above, the neck will possess a much higher degree of resiliency than in prior construct-ions, thus permitting the shirt to be slipp ver the head much. more easily. Moreover, the resiliency of the construction causes it, after being slipped over the head, to return immediately to its intended shape without permanent stretching. The raw edge of the lower extremity of the fold 17' of the colretwill be hidden and protected by the crows-foot stitching 30, which provides a sufiicient finish for the inside of the garment. The, lower extremity of the fold 17 in any event is not visible when the garment, is worn, and it will be noted that the lower line of stitching 29,, whilev above they folds 2 2 and .26, is coincident with the lower extremity .of the, fold .17.

Referring further to the matter of the resiliency of the neck band" or colret 1'4- and associated elements, it is also pointed out that the garment possesses much higher than the usual factor of recovery from stretching, even when stretched substantially to its limit when wet. For example, in extensive tests which have been made, it has been found that with a garment of the present type having a large neck of 20 inch size, the garment may be wet in cold water and the neck stretched to the fullest extent. The garment then hung up by the bottom to dry returns to a neck size of only 21 inches, representing a stretch of only one inch in 20 in the extreme tests made. On the contrary, a garment of the prior conventional type having a neck size of 20 inches was subjected to the same test, and when dry, the neck size was 23 and three-quarter inches. The test with the present device thus represented a neck stretch of only five percent above the original measurement, whereas the percentage of stretch in the conventional garment was 18.7 percent. Thus it will be obvious that the present construction is highly advantageous in that it possesses a very high degree of elasticity as compared with conventional constructions and a high degree of recovery from stretching even under the extreme test conditions referred to,

It also has been found that the present construction is extremely durable and resistant to wear and launder ing. 3y actual tests, it has been found that this increased durability is over double that of conventional T-shirts. Moreover, the appearance of the finished shirt is highly pleasing because of the trim tailored appearance presented by the neck line, thus materially increasing the saleability of the. device.

Accordingly, it will be apparent that the present device possesses three highly distinct advantages over prior constructions namely in appearance, resiliency and recovery from stretch, and durability and resistance to wear and laundering.

The operation of the form of the invention shown in Figure 6 is substantially identical with the form previously described, substantially all ofthe advantages of the form of the invention shown in Figures 1 to 5, inclusive being present in Figure 6 almost to the same degree.

The device shown embodies the invention in a pre-. ferred form, but it is intended that the disclosure be illustrative rather than definitive, the invention being defined in the claims.

I claim:

1. A garment construction comprising a body cut away centrallyof the top thereof to form a neck opening, a first strip of stretchable material having a fold intermediate its width to form downwardly extending inner and outer layers one of which lies inwardly of said body adjacent said neck opening and the other of which lies; outwardly of said body, said fold being spaced above, said neck opening, and a stretchable finishing and at! taching strip lying outwardly of said body almost wholly below said neck opening and having a plurality of folds forming such strip into a plurality of layers of material two of which provide therebetween a space receiving the lower extremity of the outer layer of said first strip of material to conceal such extremity, said. strips of material being fixed to said body by elastic stitching.

2. A garment construction comprising a body cut away centrally of the top thereof to form a neck opening, a first strip of stretchable material having a fold intermediate its width to form downwardly extending inner and outer layers one of which lies inwardly of said body adjacent said neck opening and the other of which lies outwardly of said body, said fold being spaced above said neck opening, a stretchable finishing and attaching strip lying outwardly of said body almost wholly below said neck opening and having a plurality of folds forming such strip into a plurality of layers of material two of which provide therebetween a space receiving the lower extremity of the. .outer layer of said first strip 10f material to conceal such extremity, and lines of elastic stitching applied through all of said layers of material and said body, said stitching being of the crew's-foot type inwardly of the inner layer of said first strip of material to cover and protect the lower extremity thereof.

3. A garment construction comprising a body of resilient fabric material having the top central portion thereof cut away to form a neck opening, a strip of resilient material folded intermediate its edges to provide downwardly extending inner and outer layers extending around said neck opening, said outer layer being arranged outwardly of said body adjacent said neck opening and the inner layer lying inwardly of said body and contacting therewith, and a resilient finishing and attaching strip lying wholly outwardly of said body almost wholly below said neck opening, said last named strip of material being folded at least twice throughout its length to provide a plurality of layers, two of which form an upwardly opening space therebetween to receive the lower extremity of the outer layer of said first strip of material, said strips of material and said body being secured together by elastic stitching.

4. A garment construction comprising a body of resilient fabric material having the top central portion thereof cut away to form a neck opening, a strip of resilient material folded intermediate its edges to provide downwardly extending inner and outer layers extending around said neck opening, said outer layer being arranged outwardly of said body adjacent said neck opening and the inner layer lying inwardly of said body and contacting therewith, a resilient finishing and attaching strip lying wholly outwardly of said body almost wholly below said neck opening, said last named strip of material being folded at least twice throughout its length to pro- Vide a plurality of layers, two of which form an up wardly opening space therebetween to receive the lower extremity of the outer layer of said first strip of material, one of the folds in said second named strip of material being parallel to the extremity of such strip of material remote from said body and such extremity lying inwardly of the next adjacent layer of such strip, which latter layer forms 21 facing strip, and stitching passing through all of the layers of both strips of material and through said body and being of a type which is resilient endwise of said strips of material to preserve the inherent lengthwise resiliency of the latter.

5. A garment construction comprising a body having a neck opening at the top thereof, a colret formed of a strip of stretchable material folded longitudinally to form a pair of downwardly extending layers the outer of which has its lower extremity lying outwardly of said body adjacent said neck opening and the inner of which lies inwardly of said body, and a finishing and attaching strip of stretchable material lying almost wholly below said neck opening and having a plurality of folds one of which forms a pair of layers one of which is a free edge portion of such strip and lies against said body outwardly thereof and said pair of layers forming an upwardly opening space therebetween receiving the lower extremity of said outer layer of said colret, another of said folds of said second named strip of material forming another layer lying outwardly of the other layer of said pair and forming a finishing strip extending downwardly and outwardly of said colret, and said second strip of material having another of its folds at the bottom of said finishing strip and parallel to said free edge portion of such strip and forming a second free edge portion extending upwardly behind said finishing strip, said strips of material and said body being fixed to each other by resilient stitching.

6. A garment construction comprising a body having a neck opening at the top thereof, a colret formed of a strip of material folded longitudinally to form a pair of downwardly extending layers the outer of which has its lower extremity lying outwardly of said body adjacent said neck opening and the inner of which lies inwardly of said body, a finishing and attaching strip of material lying almost wholly below said neck opening and having a plurality of folds one of which forms a pair of layers one of which is a free edge portion of such strip and lies against said body outwardly thereof and said pair of layers forming an upwardly opening space therebetween receiving the lower extremity of said outer layer of said colret, another of said folds of said second named strip of material forming another layer lying outwardly of the other layer of said pair and forming a finishing strip extending downwardly and outwardly of said colret, and said second strip of material having another of its folds at the bottom of said finishing strip and parallel to said free edge portion of such strip and forming a second free edge portion extending upwardly behind said finishing strip, and a pair of lines of stitching passing through said strips of material and through said body respectively slightly above the lower limit and slightly below the upper limit of said finishing layer, said stitching and the material of said body and said pair of strips of material being resilient endwise of the opening in said body.

7. A garment construction comprising a body of resilient fabric material having the top central portion thereof cut away to form a neck opening, a strip of resilient material folded intermediate its edges to provide downwardly extending inner and outer layers extending around said neck opening, said outer layer being arranged outwardly of said body adjacent said neck opening and the inner layer lying inwardly of said body and contacting therewith, a resilient finishing and attaching strip lying wholly outwardly of said body, said last named strip being folded at least twice throughout its length to provide a plurality of layers, two of which form an upwardly opening space therebetween to receive the lower extremity of the outer layer of said first strip, one of the folds in said second named strip being parallel to the extremity of such strip of material remote from said body and such extremity lying inwardly of the next adjacent layer of such strip, which latter layer forms a facing strip, and stitching passing through all of the layers of both strips of material and through said body and being of a type which is resilient endwise of said strips of material to preserve the inherent lengthwise resiliency of the latter, the lower extremity of said inner layer of said first named strip of material lying above the lower limits of said second strip, there being a plurality of resilient lines of stitching one of which extends through said second named strip above the lower limits thereof and coincident with the lower extremity of the inner layer of said first named strip.

8. A garment construction comprising a body having a neck opening at the top thereof, a colret formed of a strip of material folded longitudinally to form a pair of downwardly extending inner and outer layers one of which has its lower extremity lying outwardly of said body adjacent said neck opening and the other of which lies inwardly of said body, a finishing and attaching strip of material having a plurality of upper and lower folds one of the latter of which forms a pair of layers one of which is a free edge portion of such strip and lies against said body outwardly thereof and said pair of layers forming an upwardly opening space receiving the lower extremity of the outer layer of said colret, an upper fold of said second named strip of material forming another layer lying outwardly of the other layer of said pair and forming a finishing layer extending downwardly and outwardly of said colret, and said second strip of material having one of its lower folds at the bottom of said finishing layer and parallel to the other extremity of such strip and the latter extremity extending upwardly behind said finishing strip, and a pair of lines of stitching passing through said strips of material and through said body respectively slightly above said lower folds and slightly of materiali being. resilient endwise of the opening in said body, said lines ofi'stitching being connected inward ly of the garment by crowtsfoot connections, the lower extremity of the inner layerof said colret terminating slightly above the, lower limits of'the, lower folds of said second named strip of material, the lower line of said stitching passing through said finishing and attaching strip and substantiallycoincident with the lower extremity of'the inner fold of said col-ret.

9; A garment construction comprising a body having a neck opening, a stretchable colret formed of a strip of material folded longitudinally intermediate the edges thereof to form downwardly extending onterand innerlayers the former of-whichhas its lower portion lying outwardly of the body ofthe garment and the latterof which lies. inwardly of and against such body, a stretchable finishing and attaching strip lying outwardsaid body and the other of which 1y of said body: adjacent said neck opening and almost wholly below: such opening, said finishing and attach ing striphavinga-pairof folds one of which is parallel to an edge of such strip to'form a first layer lying against is parallel to and spaced from the other edge of such strip to form a second layer, said first and second layers forming a space therebetweenreceivingthelower extremity of the outer layer of said colret, and resilient stitching passing through said finishing and attaching strip, and-through said colret and said body.

References Qited in theme of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,125,903 Fathersonetal. Jan 19, 1915. 1,169,581 Thompson Jan. 25, 1 916 2,372,632 Webb Mar. 27, 1945 2,601,046 McDonald June 17, 1952 

